One down and….many more to go. Right now I’m trying to think through my son throwing a tantrum. He just doesn’t feel like calming down apparently. I think it is going to be one of those nights? (He eventually calmed down, but it wasn’t in time for me to be able to get this posted last night)

“I will not grind the bones of my people beneath my heel. They will come to me of their own free will. They will fight for their beliefs, fight for their rights as living beings, and establish themselves as more than cattle.”

Skeins Unfurled is the prequel to the Breadth Key Cycle by K.M. Vanderbilt. This is a fantasy book that is jam-packed with mythology at every twist and turn. It’s not just a single mythology either. We have Norse, Egyptian, Greek, Aztec, and Native American. The strongest influence being the Norse. With that being said, I have some strong words of advice: forget everything you know about the myths and legends.

Seriously.

I’ve read plenty of books that had different pantheons interacting and existing together (American Gods and Succubus Blues for example) but Vanderbilt takes the stories we know and twists them in a whole new way in this book.

A god was killed.
Ragnarok is coming.
Worlds are dying.
The ties that bound the gods together are broken and even the ones that had been able to see into the future, the Norns, are unable to See. All the gods are taking their fates into their own hands.

Loki and Freyr cross into Midgard (separately of course) and both start on reinstating worship, although they go about it completely different ways. Quite a bit of the book, we follow along with Freyr as he crosses the land and establishes a following. He takes it upon himself to learn about the people that the gods had turned away from, but even the god of the sun doesn’t know the implications of his own actions.

This book is filled with a diverse and complex plot that will keep you turning the pages. As I said before, forget what you know about mythology while you read this book and enjoy the story that she is weaving for you. I’ll admit, the beginning was a little difficult but once you get past the prologue, the ball really starts to roll and before you know it you’ll be completely invested in this book. You will laugh, and cry, and rage with the best of them.

My favorite part of Skeins Unfurled was that at times, it was hard to tell who was a bad guy and who was supposed to be the good guy. Vanderbilt really delves into that grey area that makes you question different moral standings. There are quite a few of those decisions that leaders may have to make that seem questionable from other points of views. You may find yourself completely disagreeing with an action one character makes until you get to a chapter that follows them around and you learn the reasoning behind it. I had many moments of “….well DAMN, when you put it THAT WAY….”

You should definitely read it! A lot of the books I post are from a NaNoWriMo writer’s group so they may not be /as/ popular outside the group, which is why I try to focus mostly on them and other indie books 😉

And thank you! He is a bit calmer since we started telling him Santa won’t bring him anything if he keeps acting up. >> 😀